28 July 2010

Did you know we went camping? Yeah, we did. That's why instead of not getting a new blog post for 5 days, you didn't get one for 7 days. I wasn't as stealthy this year as I was last year. Not too worried really.

Still, I tend to not announce when my house is fair game for all sorts of riff-raff, because I've come to accept that Mittens, who we left in the loving care of Harmzie's Norah, just isn't the most effective guard cat. She'd just look at you in that "are you here to feed me?" way of hers, then ignore you when she realizes that you're really just there to take stuff. Like the stereo. Hehe. Stereo. We are so old skool.

Anyway, Roomie, Lam, Mini and I left on the 15th and got back at exactly 11:53pm on the 20th, and I gotta say, our almost-week in the wilderness this year was nothing like last year's camping-trip-that-didn't-suck-as-much-as-I-thought-it-would. Not in a good way either. Truly sad about that. I had such high hopes for this trip.

Two of the major themes this week were mosquitoes and illness, two things that would put the kibosh on any fun family trip. But there were moments of true gold with my little family -- it wasn't all crap-crap-crap, so this post won't be a complete downer and put you off camping for the rest of your days. Or me off camping for the rest of my days. I hope.

Anyway, enough intro... on to the meat... which interestingly enough was another theme of the trip...

- We were supposed to be there until the 22nd. Three days in, I got sick. By the 20th, I knew I'd have rather stabbed my eyeballs with a tent peg than sleep on an air mattress in a cold tent in the middle of Mosquitoeville one more night.

- Yes, the mosquito population was CRAZY, thanks to the heavy rain from a few weeks back. We spent so little time outside. Even in the middle of the day, they were out harassing us. By dusk, we made sure we were done dinner, toothbrushed, and safely pajama'd in our tent before the little bastards truly became nuts.

Lots of Mosquitoes on Our Tent

- Our 2nd best purchase for Camping 2010 was our beach tent. We avoided the "race for prime shade spot under the lone tree" and got to enjoy the most time at the beach than any other camping year. Which was good because the beach was the only outdoor place we could go without being accosted by mosquitoes.And it only cost us a sweet $15.

Roomie in Repose

- The 1st best purchase? Lam's pack of 6 Bakugan balls he bought at the Home Hardware in Carberry. Advertised for $28, he got it for $10. Yeah, shopping while camping. We totally know how to rough it.

- As usual, I overpacked. Especially when it came to meat. I'm not kidding. Bacon, smokies, beef weiners, steak... And we came back with over half of what we brought. I should've known when just looking at the meatfilled cooler gave me the meat sweats.

- Overheard many times: (Mini) "I don't want to be a bug buffet!!!"

- On the 19th, we had breakfast at Carberry. The small-town folk stared at us a lot. Perhaps it was because we looked shifty.

Shady Characters

- Gotta say, hard-boiled eggs are still the best camping food. EVER.

- We only got to roast marshmallows 1 night out of the 5 we spent there. Thanks to the mosquitoes. And we never got to make s'mores.

- We didn't get to do many of the programs at the nature interpretive center. Because of the mosquitoes. Like the Critter Dip. Seriously? Critter Dip? Do we look like chumps? We might as well be wearing "Bite Me" signs. Assuming mosquitoes can read. And we weren't trying to be insulting.

- While others made sand castles, Mini and I made a BIG honkin' shopping mall!

The Mall of Mittens

- I started and finished Dan Brown's Digital Fortress. Nenette the Nerd didn't get lost in the terminology and was quite entertained. Nenette the Smut Novel Junkie thought it was just nice.

- Lam tried a bunch of stuff that wasn't weird to do at a beach.

Voguing

- We made 3 squirrel friends, who Mini named: Belle 1 (the skinny one), Belle 2 (the one Lam dubbed "Belle who likes beer" -- Yeah, I don't get it.), Belle 3 (the Rubenesque one that may have been stealing Belle 1's food)

Belle 1 or 2 or 3

But really, my family and I got a chance to enjoy some together time. Even if it was to huddle together in the tent, away from a common enemy. Yeah, in a weird way, I'll miss these days.

But not anytime soon.

~@~

I've linked this up at Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop under "Describe a memorable camping trip" as I'm sure this camping trip will be forever remembered in infamy.

awEsome shopping mall there!!!! quite impressive.. that one picture of the mosquitoes just make me itch!!>! and the 'shady characters' .. making me laugh. funny when the small town folk can spot ya from a mile away. ;;)

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